A survey was
conducted to provide insight into the standard of living of
cocoa farmers in Ghana. A total of 637 households (with 3392
persons) were randomly sampled using a multi staged sampling
technique from eleven cocoa districts in Ghana. Formal
questionnaires were used to interview the heads of
households on various aspects of their lives. The objective
was to find the total annual household expenditure as a
proxy indicator and compare with national living standards
in order to stratify the farmers by poverty status. Results
indicated that 7.4 percent of the sampled population were
extremely poor with total annual expenditure less than GH¢443.61
while 11.4 percent were poor with less than GH¢570.31. An
analysis of the poverty gap revealed that a person needed an
average of GH¢135.45 (about $68) or up to GH¢397.00 per
annum to be lifted up from extremely poor to the upper
poverty line. It could thus, be deduced that poorer cocoa
farmers needed the money equivalent of two bags (125 kg) of
dry cocoa to be able to satisfy their basic consumption
needs. It is thus, recommended that the majority small-scale
cocoa farmers should be assisted to adopt yield enhancing
technology in order to increase their current low
productivity of less than 400 kg.